I took Ashton down onto my lap, and pointed to the cord we’d used with Rolly, asking Alex to get it for me. ‘Shh shh Ashton, every things alright now. The noise is over, we’re fine aren’t we?’ I said consolingly, hugging him all the while. Alex returned with the cord and I sat him with his brother, before getting up to tie the man’s hands. Tying the hands behind him, I asked who he was and why did they want to kill us. He explained that he didn’t, but that last man through in the county jail jumpsuit pushed everyone to it. That he had taken control of the men and the van, not allowing for any group collaborations. “He’s the one who killed your dog”, he was saying and then the boys started crying again.
I went to the other bodies to make sure they were all dead and picked up a rifle from the stairs. Wow, a Remington 30 Caliber automatic. Probably a 1980’s production and checked the magazine. One round left, so I rummaged through the three men’s clothing and came up empty, except for a lighter and two quarter packs of cigarettes. Not a wallet or identification among them. ‘Why no ID’s?’ I asked of my captured soul, and he dipped his head and said “because we are all on the run. If the government or FEMA caught up with us, they could use the addresses and search out others who might still be hiding”. That hadn’t occurred to me and I thought it was certainly a good idea. ‘When did you see me here?’ I asked of him, and he said they heard a shot and headed for it. “We watched you tinker with the car and pull it to the west of the building. My daughter sent the drone to spy on you and that’s when he knew you were alone”. ‘Well I’m not alone am I?’ And I wanted to say you stupid fuck, but I knew the boys had never heard that kind of language before and kept it to myself.
His jacket had become drenched in blood and it was soaking into his pants as well. I went over and ripped the shirt off of one of the bodies, and pressed it into the wound. This didn’t look good for him as the bullet was still inside, and he winced agonizingly as I applied pressure to stop the bleeding. The boys were settling down a bit, and I asked Alex to get some water from the duffle bag. I checked the other rifles as well, which were two 22 calibers with 20 inch barrels like the 30-30 I was using, and an M-16 with half a clip left. The 22’s were empty. ‘How much ammunition do you have on that truck?’ I had asked while taking a big swig from the water bottle, then pouring some of it over my face and down my neck.
“Are you going to kill me?” he asked, with still a frightful look upon his face, but his eyes were focused on the water bottle. ‘How much food and water do you have?’ I didn’t look at him this time because I didn’t know if he was going to die or not, and I was avoiding wasting any of the water we had. “Lots” was the answer, and now I didn’t know if he was lying either.
namkcorb 